Most important news first: I have released a new anthology game, Friction & Integration. My contribution to this game is what I was alluding to in the Offsuit Pair post-mortem when I said that I still had a few ideas I wanted to play around with in the same engine. Everyone worked very hard on this collection, so please check it out!
Secondly, I have uploaded an updated re-release of a collection of my original short stories, Postmortal Figures, which now includes some inline illustrations. My contribution to Friction & Integration is a direct followup on some of these stories, and my Yuri Jam project is a direct sequel to the events of the last two chapters.
On a site-maintenance note, you’ll notice that comment sections have been replaced. They’re entirely self-hosted now, through a service called welcomments! This is both a lot more flexible for you all and a lot more self-sufficient for me, win-win. I plan to manually transfer over my existing comments, so hopefully there won’t be much time between making this post and those being updated.
I have also drafted up a small reclist of most of the games I’ve played from the Toxic Yuri VN Jam so far; This was done as a part of the recommendations bonus round in the Yuri Shipping Olympics. These aren’t terribly substantial, but because they’re for 18+ games I was required to put them behind a role-locked discord channel. I decided I’d rather these be outside a walled garden where more people can access them, so I will cross-post them here as well.
I will not necessarily include a list of warnings for each recommendation on this list, so please refer to each individual game’s page. These games run the gamut from relatively benign to active discussion/depiction of suicidality and other heavy themes. To quote deaddeaddeath, “Eat only that which you can digest”.
This list is not sorted in any particular order, other than the semi-arbitrary order I read them in.
by ruemilley, Noobert, and _Miisty
Need a hand? Some lip service? A second set of eyes? In a future where a new body is just a down payment away, THESECO has an installment plan for that.
Jeanne needs an arm.
Margaret likes to feel appreciated—one replacement, waived fees, no questions asked.
Now they’re both paying the price.
This was the first game I played form the jam, and what can I say? I love depictions of how capitalism shapes bodily autonomy and how this might manifest as self-loathing. (And I’m a bit of a cyborg pervert, but that’s besides the point). The dynamic between the two leads is super fun and the in-universe advertisements are a very well put-together way to deliver narrative info.
by kazehai and ppilotco
“One day in mid-December, I returned to the shores of Fort Colwyn to the curious realization that the town had been wholly evacuated.”
A mixed media story about stories, storytelling, intertextuality, and canon building.
If you’ve caught wind of games from this jam this is undoubtedly one of the ones you saw, and with good reason: it’s absolutely gorgeous. A masterfully interwoven story talking about the lives of three women and how their lives change in the last year of human habitation on their small island home. The realization (and dread) as the various nonlinear plot threads come together is utterly satisfying.
by 麒麟蝙蝠 (kirinkoumori)
“I’ve never felt this way about anyone else before… So, so…”
“Shut up!”
She grabs me by the throat, hands wrapped around the collar I wore that day. I can’t bear to look her in the eyes.
“I am so sick of you, Aiko!”
Her hands tighten around my neck and I black out.
… Except, I wake up in my room, drenched in sweat. My bedroom ceiling looks down on me.
“Haha… another one of these dreams…”
I close my eyes again.
Old-style 2000s era inspired kinetic novel. Yuri. 18+.
Greatly inspired by a certain French philosopher.
If the description “absurdist denpa” means anything to you, you truly owe it to yourself to check out this game. Even if you haven’t read the recommended reading list featuring Sartre, Camus, and Dazai (copies of which are bundled with the game, a bold authorial choice that I commend earnestly), this intense story about delusion and philosophy is hard to put down– and hard to forget. The work as a whole is also delightfully nostalgic, with both visuals and cultural references that strongly evoke early ‘aughts VNs.
by rombuffer and VioletBooks
WELCOME TO ACEDIA
So, guess who got commissioned to search another archive by BORE? That’s right! Aren’t you lucky?
This one’s real simple, at least. Once you’re ready, I’ll connect you to an old academy ark, ‘Acedia’. Coordinates were so far out, it was pretty hard to get a stable connection- probably why it was abandoned, too. No life signs on board. Wanna take a bet on why…? Heh, well anyway, here’s the instructions:
Wake up the old system AI, !Rue, and have her unlock the archive logs. Find out what happened to our subjects of interest; girl named Kui and her companion, designation C-06.
View and download whatever files !Rue unlocks, then decompile it- I can do the rest.
Should be a quick mission, right? Don’t disappoint me now.
-CT-
Incen(diary) is an amazing use of the medium; if I was not incredibly familiar with renpy as an engine at this point I would have been absolutely shocked to learn that this game was made with that engine. This game is a remarkable take on epistolary-adjacent writing, where the player must interact through a diegetic computer interface as they hack into the computer records of a former medical facility as they uncover what made the operation come crashing down. This develops in unexpected directions as computer logs report tampering and the system AI that has been helpful to a fault starts to behave in peculiar ways…
by ruin
two scientists kill themselves to become a god (in space) a game about fear, and longing
What if immortality was both a curse and a means to continually extract labor from working individuals? This far-future scifi offers fascinating glimpses into a world where this is all just background noise and protagonist Deimos seethes internally and just wants a break from it all. Every part of the presentation is amazingly put-together, with gorgeous art and well-timed audio cues that build up the cryptic atmosphere.
by Laddo_d
Unit 1277-B is the latest model from a fantastic line of home cleaning robots. She is programmed to love and obey her master no matter what. Her master is very busy, and can’t always complete the routine maintenance 1277-B needs to serve at maximum efficiency. How long will 1277-B last before her robot body falls apart?
Do your best, 1277-B! No matter what, you will always love master and master probably loves you! It’s definitely true! You know this is true because your programming tells you so.
Very short and “sweet”, this visual novel has an amazing handle on what exactly it means to be a robot. Every bit of internal narration and decision making frame the player character, Skip, as a disposable tool meant to serve corporate profit-goals. None of this bothers her though– she loves her work! ^_^
by ptln
Two college students suffer through trauma, guilt, anxiety, and jealousy during the last day of finals before graduation.
Maybe Next Year… is a toxic yuri visual novel. The story follows two women, one drowning in delusions and self-destruction, the other in obligation and resentment, and both clinging desperately onto one another.
While a lot of the entries in the TYVNJ are about fantastic situations driving women to spectacular disaster, Maybe next year… is very mundane. The struggles with self-worth and obligation feel very raw and earnest, the kind of thing that typically only happens with a passion project from a solo dev. This passion also shines through with all the small details in CGs and character expressions; a very well thought-out use of developer time and asset distribution.
by perpetuaReality
Two women trapped in an elevator.
It’s been who-knows-how-many hours.
Tensions are high.
They are sweaty and on edge.
Any spark will put them at each other’s throats.
This game is framed as a video feed recording the incident between these two women, which adds a layer of delicious voyeurism to the raunchy events that unfold. Short with incredibly punchy and effective characterization, there is no time wasted in cutting directly to the conflict. If you enjoyed “Black and White: Tough Love At The Office”, you need to play this game.
by Lunaticker
A BEAST FATED TO DEVOUR OR DIE
A PREY ANIMAL THAT CAN’T HELP BUT RUSH ITS FATE
CAN TRUE LOVE BLOOM ACROSS THE FOOD CHAIN?
Among the many people talking in the TYVNJ server while the jam was going on, this game was one of the ones that consistently caught my eye with stylish visuals. When I finally got to read through the novel, I was pleasantly surprised by the very visceral and intense writing style and the incredible chemistry between the two leads. I wouldn’t hesitate to call the relationship toxic, but their predator-and-prey dynamic sometimes struck me as oddly wholesome, which is part of why I think this one stuck with me– it can be tough to justify why a couple in a toxic story is staying together, and this game did a stellar job of explaining that.
by porksbun
Kinetic Visual Novel about becoming a goth girl’s dog for a day.
This is another game that stuck with me because of the absolutely stylish visual presentation– the scratchy and animated character sprites do a lot to underscore the grunge of this game. Lonely Dog doesn’t pull any punches as the distant and sadistic Eden toys with Rachel, with little explanation given as to why. In the portmortem for this game, the author mentioned being inspired by Saw in the conceptualization phase for this game, and I absolutely do see that influence.
by frenchie and witty
Present perceptual consciousness refers to the subjective experience of the current moment.
>A story of pygmalion and paper dolls.
>A story of a girl and her creator.
Oh my godddd this is one of those things where I read it and it just felt so incredibly perfectly catered to me. Following the creation of a robot and how she interacts with the world through her incrementally-upgraded body, the relationship between her and her creator is incredibly strained. The conflicting desires for love from creator to created and for recognition to the creator over her creation sets the stage painfully realistic emotional neglect and denial of personhood. I will always love you, wire mother <3
by imcoffeecats
The year is 1930. After a traumatic incident, Odette has been sent away to a Catholic boarding school for young ladies. However, there’s one secret she has to keep hidden: she’s a recently-turned vampyre. Determined to continue life as a normal human, Odette tries her best to navigate the changes within her body and appetite. Luckily, she doesn’t have to do it alone. Her roommate, Auriame, is by her side, but is withholding her own secrets. Together, will their friendship blossom into something beautiful, or become something all-consuming?
This is on the cuter end of entries for this jam, primarily dealing with the mundane life of a schoolgirl who doesn’t fit in at her catholic school. But as the conflict from the supernatural plot elements– Odette’s budding vampyrism and Auriame’s self-proclaimed angelhood– start to mount, the stakes and dread of the scenario start to sink in. I also want to add that this game is incredibly impressive for a one-person dev team, between the length of writing, the quantity+quality of art, and the level of polish.
by Fisher, Autumn, and Puapka
Zuzka’s life is crumbling around them. They wake up with bruises they can’t explain, and they are barely able to keep it together anymore. Just what lies in wait for them?
A very authentic depiction of plurality (and how this can lead to absolutely disastrous consequences if not everyone is in the same page). Both the (intra- and inter- personal) character writing and torture-basement writing are super compelling, I didn’t want to put this game down the whole time. This many original cgs and sprites is also wildly ambitious for the scope of a jam game, and added a level of detail for how Zuska presents themselves day-to-day that was very appreciated.
by margogaming
even though you have all the pieces, you don’t get the point
Contains
SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP. If you have ever related to one of the tumblr posts to the effect of “Why is yuri not as indulgent and trashy as yaoi is. Where’s my mob boss x no-good debtor yuri”, you NEED to read this. Eleanor is an absolutely compelling protagonist who puts on a presentable face while constantly seething internally. When she ends up saving a dark and charming made woman, all she wants to do is get away and get back to her normal daily life. Unfortunately for her, the woman she saved is not someone to quickly let go of things, especially when a cute woman is involved… What a duo of weirdos. CLAIRE ILYSM.
by doomgender and cryingrulesactually
“I welcome you all, to the last and final show of the Rosenwood Center Saint Theater! The long-overdue farewell! The Romance of the Moth and the Flame!“
A story of three women whose lives intersect at sharpened angles.
A one-woman show in an empty theater.
A rebuke of the world of mortals.
A tale of love and parting.
Moth x Flame
I feel like I’ve been repeating “the presentation is stunning” many times here but it’s true every time, and often in different ways. As the lead character in Moth and the Flame gives her one-woman theater show, the visuals in the novel itself follow stage cues and set directions in a way that shows mastery over how to implement 3D animation in renpy. Everything ties together beautifully at the emotional climax of the novel, where the titular (and inevitable) flame takes hold.
by oroboro
It’s 2005, and Emily’s best friend Kayla is being harassed by an anonymous cyberbully on MySpace.
But Emily is there to defend and comfort her…
And be the only person in the world that Kayla could ever need.
This is another entry that I can’t help but describe as “fun”– the ending basically had me going “LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO” at my laptop. Em is such a disaster, albeit for a massive pileup of perfectly understandable reasons. A painfully accurate screenshot of the internet in the early 00’s and today.
by pickyerpoison
The villagers of Anduja live an easy life thanks to the blessing of the goddess Kataja, who visits the village once every hundred years to bestow a gift of fertility upon the fields.
The price is simple: a single villager, given to her, to be taken with her for reasons unknown.
A hundred years have passed since the last blessing. You are the tribute to be offered to her this time. It’s your turn to see what the home of the goddess is like.
This game makes really good use of branching paths– even after I’d earned all three endings, I played through a few more times just to see what else could happen and what other tidbits of lore I could glean. This game is astonishingly well thought out, and there are a number of key bits of characterization someone might miss if they don’t try to pry around the edges of the narrative. While it takes some digging to get to, Katja’s relationship with humanity is fascinating.
by killjill
Claire desires Didi. Claire hurts Nina. Claire wants Didi to hurt her.
OOOUUGGGGHHH I have not seethed this much at a piece of fiction in quite some time. This is very much a tragedy in the classical sense– once these characters had met and the plot was set in motion, there was no happy way this was going to end, and all parties involved would have nothing to blame but their own character flaws. Claire is SUCH a shitty, self-victimizing, chaser sub and Didi is willing to look past one too many red flags. I also just really wanna see more messy women sadists like Didi.
My reading may have slowed down a bit due to creative deadlines, but in no way am I done. These are some of the games that I’ve scoped out and fully intend to read, although this list keeps growing as I find more games that tickle my fancy.
In no particular order:
Something that might be interesting to know is that none of the plots in the spoiler section were de novo for the postmortem– They were all used in my out-of-engine code prototypes.
Another minor behind-the-scenes on the postmortem itself: I tried to set up MathJax to render equations live on the page, but I ran into a bizarre problem where the superscripts and subscripts broke when they were inside a spoiler tag. I couldn’t deduce what caused that (the spoiler tag implementation is pure CSS and doesn’t touch lineheight styling at all).
In the end I feel like it’s a better idea to pre-render the equations, anyways. Sometimes you just need to know when to put a problem down and move on to something else, y’know?
Done with one project, onto the next.
clipping. is really one of the best groups to ever do it, much less in the current industrial scene. The release of Dead Channel Sky earlier this year quickly became one of my all-time favorite albums, and the upcoming extended cut continues to stun with impeccable lyrical delivery and super tight production.
php workarounds that I was coming up with, ahahahaha. I have crossposted my guide to the HnK series here from my tumblr. At the time when I first wrote the guide, the platform seemed like my best choice for hosting it, due to being so very multi-media and leveraging Tumblr’s photoset feature. Well, I should have known that would eventually bite me in the ass, because Tumblr is a half-functioning platform on a good day: I can no longer save edits to the post. I had a few errata that I’d needed to fix after sharing the page with the discord folks, but now with the new anime project on the horizon I really wanted to have up-to-date info on it. So I’ve added a new sub-section for the remake and made some minor updates to things that have changed since I wrote the post (ex status of Regenesis, number of Viz volume releases, etc.)
Anyways, cool new feature list:
/writing/ that automatically collects stats and timestamps for relevant sub-pages.At this point I think this is about all the time I can justify spending on this site until I finish my Toxic Yuri Jam project. When that is finished I’m looking forward to linking it on my upcoming /games page– I’m definitely going to be talking about this one for a while.